This page talks about an interesting experience Doug had in attending one of the 'Forward Into the Past' HOPRA "Zero Unlimited" races. This car now resides in the HC Slots Museum. After running this car I believe Doug's friend Nelson would have won the race had it not been a late race 'thumb'. Doug: "I think these cars kick butt. This style pan was always considered a beginners car, no serious racer back in the day ever raced one. It was always on my mind to see just how good one could be made, I think I got my answer, pretty darn good. In that time I played with a lot of my vintage cars, I think there is more potential for full pan cars. I believe the Pro-Pan (what I sent) style can be improved yet, I plan on working on all of them. This car has a #37 in it. I had a 36 in it and it was really fast, with no heat issues, but when Nelson decided to drive (this) car we opted to go back to the 37 to make it more drivable."
This car will turn 6 second laps on my 62 ft Scorpion. As a comparison, 6.5 second laps were the best at the 2011 Big Buck Shootout on a Brystal Scorpion.
Doug: "I went to the gravity race Saturday, a guy (Nelson) in our club that raced 70s HOPRA when I did out of Detroit went with me. My TCP stock pickup pan cars were running great, I thought we had a chance at a 1-2 finish because they were running that good but it didn't happen. There were 11 racers and for some reason there were no heats and they ran a 11 man round robin, 5 min per lane. Pickup adjustment is crucial on these cars and right off the bat my car was junk, turned out that the last crash in practice broke a pickup where I bent it to limit the travel. There was no practice right before the race so when they said go my car was junk, I went down 4 laps to Nelson in the first 5 minute heat.
Between heats I changed the pickup and got the 4 laps back in the next heat but I never did get it adjusted right, it had power skips the entire race, very frustrating. In the last heat Nelson had a chance to win it all if he could turn in a good segment but he had some problems of his own, that's racing. On a hard de-slot the body came out on one side the pins went under the pan, he flopped around for a couple of laps before he pulled and fixed it but he lost his chance to win it.
The track owner, Scott Terry, won it with a G-Jet and a good driving performance. Nelson was 2nd with this car, I was 3rd less then a foot behind him. We were down 8 laps on a fairly small track, I think with a little bit better luck we could have been right there with him. I know I'm disappointed but on the upside both of us had some problems and still posted good finishes, so I guess I shouldn't be whining."
